


still here

by iblount02



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Minor Karl Jacobs/Sapnap, Slow Burn, dreamnotfound
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:40:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29144592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iblount02/pseuds/iblount02
Summary: A big mashup of mcyt in a preppy boarding high-school AU. Dreamnotfound focused though there is karlnap here and there too.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 17
Kudos: 68





	1. "she knows it's too late"

It was dark and rain was pouring through the gaps of blue in the sky.  
There were a few people around but the campus was mostly empty and Dream walked to his dorm having been disappointed that he wasn’t placed with one of his friends. When he got there the door read “Welcome Dream and George! Room 29A”.  
He stared at the sign before walking in. “George” evidently had not arrived yet as the room was empty, Dream took advantage of this and claimed a side of the room and the wardrobe leaving the other boy the dresser and drawers to store his clothes.  
Dream had no idea who this George guy was and nor did his friends. When he asked reception they just said he might be late as he was flying in from abroad. Dream wasn’t over the moon with the situation but it could be worse so he didn’t make too much of a fuss.  
After a while of unpacking clothes, pictures and various posters he heard something,  
“Hey, you in here?” came a shaky, accented voice from outside. He turned around and the fear on the boy’s face was unmissable, “O-oh. Hello.” Dream stood up and the boy’s eyes widened even more so than they already were,  
“Hello?” Dream looked at him intrigued, he wasn’t as tall as him, 5’9”, 5’10” maybe. He looked incredibly nervous and appeared to be shaking a little too. He had shorter brown hair that just covered his eyes and was holding two large suitcases and also had a school backpack on. Dream assumed this was George, “You must be George,” the dark-haired boy nodded,  
“Who are you?” 

The two got settled into their dorm and seemed to get on rather well for people who had only just met, George was also a lot calmer now. They had gotten to talk a lot while they were unpacking and Dream learned that George was from England,  
“Yeah it was like a 7-hour flight and the guy sitting next to me snored so loud,” George said as he chuckled, “I wish I were joking,”  
“That sucks,” Dream normally doesn’t take to new people very well but George seemed okay in his eyes. Turns out they both already go here, they just hadn’t bumped into each other last year due to different friends and interests, “Yeah I live about an hour and a half away in the car so it wasn’t that much hassle to get here,” he said as he helped George with folding some shirts.  
They talked more about pets, hobbies and a bunch of other such  
things until about 3 in the morning, they didn't realise the time but neither really minded because they weren’t that tired. Dream went to bed first but couldn’t sleep because as the night went on he increasingly got more nervous. George just couldn’t sleep because of jetlag. He continued to put up pictures in the dark but ended up going to sleep about half an hour later. Dream watched him for the most part but pretended to be asleep whenever he turned around.

“Hey, you up?” Dream poked George lightly on the arm, “It’s 11:45, you’ve missed breakfast,” his eyes opened a little as Dream peered down on him,  
“Hm?” George’s voice was all raspy and it took Dream by surprise a little, he walked off to go and change into some nicer clothes for the day while George woke up,  
“I figured I’d let you be because you didn’t go to sleep until really late,” Dream said while putting on some dark green socks with mice on them,  
“Oh, probably best I missed breakfast anyway,” George says in a still raspy voice. It was kind of cute but Dream pushed that thought straight out of his mind. Dream looked at him confused, “I don’t really have many friends here to socialise with,”  
“I’m your friend aren’t I?” Dream said. He didn’t want to sound desperate but he didn’t want George to feel like he is on his own,  
“I suppose you are,” George smiled at him and sat up brushing his hair out of his face. It stood up a little bit at the back but he didn’t notice.  
He started checking his phone and replied to his mum saying he got here safe, “I take it you have a lot of friends here already,” he looked up, “I’ve heard about you before I think,” George had actually heard a lot last year about Dream, not bad things necessarily but enough,  
“Yeah a few,” Dream said, George looked kind of apologetic as if to say ‘sorry you’re stuck with me’, “I can introduce you to them if you’d like?” George looked away and out of the window,  
“Yeah that would be nice,” he said with a small smile.

The day was ice cold and took most people by surprise as it was sunny and looked warm outside. Funny how the world can lie to you too.  
The campus was still mostly empty but this time George and Dream were walking through the main courtyard. It was a big green area and was quite sunny there.  
Dream had already arranged to meet with his friends and decided that there would be no harm in taking George along too. The boy had the look of fear and nerves on his face again, Dream could tell he didn’t like meeting new people very much. He gave some reassuring words and told him that they were all quite nice but his face was still mostly drained of colour.  
“Dream! Wow it’s the man himself,” shouted a voice from farther away,  
“Shut up Tommy,” said another, “You’re being embarrassing,”  
There were 3 boys walking towards where the two boys were standing waiting whom George did not recognise in the slightest. They were all tall and had similar facial features but yet they all looked so different,  
“Hello,” one said, directed at Dream. He had curly, brown hair and wore a large, yellow sweater. He shuffled as he spoke, “This is Tommy, our younger brother. He joined this year and now he thinks he is the alpha male” he said with a chuckle.  
The boy called Tommy beamed at the introduction and the remaining boy rolled his eyes. Tommy noticed George standing there and said hello, assuming he was just one of his brothers' friends,  
“Hello Wilbur,” Dream said. George looked at the other boy, “This is George,” he gestured to his roommate,  
“Um hi,” He couldn’t have looked more scared if he tried,  
“This is Wilbur, he is in our year, Techno who is in the year above and Tommy who appears to be in the year below,” George just nodded. Wilbur waved but the older looking boy out of the three looked impatient and evidently wanted to leave. He had long pink hair and was built like an athlete, he looked out of place with the other two sticks,  
“I’m going to go, Bad said he wanted something doing with his PC, nice meeting you both,” he smiled at the two and walked off briskly. Tommy and Wilbur remained with Dream and George, they talked a lot about nothing, how George isn’t new but has met practically no one, how they are roommates which is kind of strange considering they had never met then Tommy said how the same thing happened to him and this guy called Tubbo. They talked about family and all that too,  
“Fun fact,” said Wilbur, “Me and Techno are actually twins,” George's jaw dropped slightly and Tommy rolled his eyes as if he has heard the story a million times before, “Yeah it’s true! The only reason we are in different grades is because he was born August 31st at like 11:48 and I'm born 26 minutes later on September 1st 00:14,” George looks dumbfounded and Dream and Wilbur can't help but laugh.  
After a while, they had to go but George got Wilbur’s number and he said to text him if he needed anything so he considered that a new friend in the bag. Wilbur seemed genuinely nice but he didn’t give too much away about himself unlike Tommy who could just ramble for days about things he has done,  
“That wasn’t too bad was it?” Dream chuckles as they walk. George looks up from the ground,  
“What do you mean?”  
“Not saying you looked scared but I can safely say you have regained all colour in your face,” Dream said with a smile, George was slightly taken aback by the remark and playfully pushed Dream away as they were walking back to the main hall for lunch,  
“Hey, I have just undergone a trans-Atlantic migration and you are going to make fun of me huh?” George laughed,

The lunch hall was packed full of people and George had just realised that he was starving considering having slept through breakfast.  
He knew that mealtimes were probably going to be more of some kind of social event than he was used to so he tried to find Wilbur or Tommy to keep himself from burdening Dream even more but Tommy was with his freshman friends and Wilbur just wasn’t there at all.  
He really didn’t want to sit on his own so he stayed with Dream. He made a mental note to apologise later.  
When they both got to a table they were accompanied by three other boys who Dream seemed to know and George unsurprisingly didn’t  
“Hey what’s up Dream,” said the tallest one, he had light brown hair and was wearing a colourful sweater. It was kind of ugly in George’s opinion because the colours clashed a little, then again George couldn’t see most colours so he couldn’t really pass a judgement, it seemed to suit the boy though, “Who’s this?” he said pointing to him  
“Oh this is George,” Dream looked at him to introduce himself,  
“Hi, I’m George yeah,” the shortest boy nodded and kind of stared at him, George pushed his hair out of his eyes while looking around the table kind of panicked.  
“C’mon let’s do names, for all of our benefits,” Dream said with a clap and George couldn’t help but feel slightly embarrassed, “Sap you go first,” one of the boys looked up from his food,  
“Oh um okay,” he put his fork down, “Hi I’m Nick, or better known as Sapnap,” Sapnap said. He had jet black hair and wore a bandana to keep it out of his eyes, he looked around the same height as the brown-haired boy but couldn’t tell. He glanced over at the guy next to him,  
“I’m Karl,” said sweater boy. He looked at George, “Just Karl is fine,” he smiled,  
“I’m Alex or Quackity,” said the last boy quickly, he had dark hair but it was hard to tell as a large, blue beanie was covering it. He wouldn’t make eye contact with George and sounded a bit nervous or flustered, George couldn’t really tell but he didn’t really make a note of it.  
“I’m Dream but you already know me, I’ve known Sap since we were like 10 I think?” he looks over at Sapnap for reassurance and he nods in agreement, “And yeah and I’ve known Karl and Quack since last year,”  
“That’s pretty cool,” George nods trying not to look at anyone for too long,  
After a while of talking and eating George excuses himself and goes back to his room because he decided he wasn’t feeling that hungry anymore. “Probably nerves,” he told himself.  
When he got there he just kind of slumped in the bathroom. It’s not like anything bad had happened, he just felt like they were Dream’s friends and he was invading.  
He only had one friend here that he had made last year that he didn’t even keep contact with so he felt bad for having to tag along with Dream. Nevertheless, he had decided that his new-found friends were Dream, Wilbur and Karl mainly because they had not been sceptical or weird when they saw him.  
They were all nice enough but Quackity just stared at him and it made George a little uncomfortable, he decided it was probably because he had never seen him before.  
George checked his phone and he had a missed call from his sister. He decided he would call her back later. He also got a text from Dream. George looked confused because he didn’t really expect to actually get texts from any of these people. It said, “hey where r u?”. George just replied with “I went back to our room haha” and then he put his phone down.  
He didn’t really know what to think about any of this because he didn’t expect to make friends, let alone on the first few days but people were talking to him and weren’t ignoring him so progress.  
He just sat there for a few minutes texting his sister then Dream knocked,  
“You don’t have to knock you know, it’s your room too,” and again he felt the pang of guilt as Dream came through the door,  
“Yeah but I don’t know what you’re doing in here,” he looked at George, “what are you doing down there,” he chuckled and held out a hand for him to get up. George took it and he pulled himself up. Their hands lingered, “everything okay?”  
For a second a million thoughts ran through George’s head as he looked into Dream’s eyes. He didn’t want to tell him because it would make him feel bad so in that split second he just looked away and said,  
“Yeah. Yeah everything’s good,” Dream looked a little sceptical and could tell that George was lying but decided not to further the issue because it wasn’t really his business to get into and he didn’t want to piss off his roommate on the second day of them being friends, “You’re friends are nice,” George added. He meant it and he wanted to tell Dream, “Thank you,” then he smiled at him.  
Dreams face lit up as something popped into his head,  
“Oh yeah about that!” he said suddenly enthusiastically, “Karl wanted your number but I just wanted to check with you if I could give it to him, just if you need anything you have it I guess,” George looked thoroughly confused. Dream took notice, “You know? Brown hair, ugly sweater,” George knew who he was on about (was also relieved someone else thought his sweater was ugly) but why would Karl want his number? He pretended he was confused about that and nodded at Dream,  
“Oh yeah he can have it, don't worry about asking me,” He was actually quite taken aback that Dream had asked, “as long as you're not giving it to a serial killer I’m good,” He laughed,  
“Perfect, I can give it to you now and you can text him or I can just send it to him?” he asked,  
“Just send it to him,” George said, he really didn’t feel like coming up with a “first message” right now,  
“Ok cool,”  
About 5 minutes after Dream sent the number, George got a message from Karl,  
“Jesus that was quick,” he said quietly.

~~~~~~~~~~

Dream was sitting on his bed scrolling through Twitter and George was unpacking a box that had arrived in shipping an hour earlier. His suitcases only had clothes and very important photos in them but the box had other random things like posters, his PC, shoes and his CD player along with his ever-growing collection of discs. As he was lining them all up on the shelf, counting and making sure that they were all there, Dream had walked over and was looking at them,  
“Who are those bands?” he asked. George jumped as he had not heard him come over, “Sorry,” Dream said over George’s shoulder still inspecting the shelf,  
“They’re mostly English bands,” he said with a hint of pride in his voice. Dream picked up a case, it read ‘Oasis Greatest Hits’ and he flipped it over to look at the tracklist. George looked at Dream and his face lit up,  
“Excellent choice,” he said pointing to the case, “you’ve got taste,” he turned back to the shelf and plugged in the CD player,  
“I have never heard of these people,” said Dream, he looked very confused, “Why are the song names so weird?” George laughed at him, “Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova?” Dream muttered, ‘what does that even mean?’ he thought,  
“Look, give it here,” said George, taking the case from him and popping the CD into the player. He skipped a few tracks until he found the one he wanted, “Aha!” he said in triumph. Dream looked a little less enthusiastic but saw that George looked happiest right now than he had seen at all since Dream had met him so he went along with it.  
The opening bars of the song played and Dream nodded his head along to the beat and when the lyrics kicked in George put on this big, fake, over-dramatic act and held his fist to his mouth as if it were a microphone,  
“Slip inside the eye of your mind, don’t you know you might find,” George sang while Dream laughed with him. George looked down to him and lowered his voice as part of the act, “A better place to play,”  
George looked up again and bopped around the room to the rest of the verse while Dream looked in astonishment,  
“Not bad, not bad,” he said smiling,  
“Just wait until the chorus,” George said smirking as he hyped himself up for it,

‘So I start a revolution from my bed,  
'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head,  
Step outside, summertime's in bloom,’

‘Stand up beside the fireplace’ George mouthed, ‘Take that look from off your face,’ he pointed to Dream while doing this odd Freddie Mercury style dance move, ‘cus you ain’t gunna burn my heart ouu-out’ a small guitar riff played and Dream grinned at him before George went full out,  
“AND SOOOO SALLY CAN WAIT,” he sang as he jumped up “SHE KNOWS IT'S TOO LATE, AS WE’RE WALKING ON BY,” he grabbed Dreams hands and pulled him up to share the energetic moment with him, “Her soul slides away,” he sang before dying down a bit, “But don't look back in anger,” he puts a hand to his heart, “I heard you say,” electric guitar begins to play slower as the song goes into the 3rd verse and George and Dream danced until the song ends


	2. comfort tracks and ex girlfriends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream and George play a late night game of truth or dare :]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Chapter 2 is here, there isn't too much *spice* in this chapter but there is in more to come i promise. Enjoy <3

Dream was amazed George actually had that much energy in him. The only things he had observed from him were that he was often tired and disliked social interaction. He really didn’t expect it from him so he just sat there staring at George in wonder,  
“What?” he said slumping down next to Dream, “Can’t I enjoy a little sing-song?” he joked. He was still panting a little from his world exclusive performance,  
“Nothing nothing,” Dream said in return, “Just didn’t expect it that’s all,” He paused, “I retract my statement of the band being weird, their music is actually pretty good,” George’s face lit up again, his music taste was obviously an area in his personality in which he cherished and Dream thought it was cute to encourage so he did so. The rest of the album continued to play but George had turned down the volume so they could still talk. They chatted about music for a long time and George recommended a lot of songs to him, though Dream only added the Sally song to his playlist.   
As he got up to go to the bathroom, Dream saw George putting a small, blue star sticker on the front of the album cover, it had the number ‘4’ in the middle of it too. He also noticed that very few of the covers had the stars on them, some had numbers and some didn’t. He thought it was interesting and wondered why they were there, he opened his mouth to ask but George saw him looking and quickly hid the cover so he thought it was best not to ask. 

The afternoon went quickly after that and Dream had left to go to a football practice at around 3 and said he wouldn't be back until around 5. This meant George had 2 hours to waste until dinner. He finished putting up posters, flags, pictures and other decorations pretty fast so he decided to take a wonder down to the main schooling area to go and explore. He went to the office to go and get a copy of his timetable and books that he needed, he got Dream’s too and compared them as he walked around. They had a few classes but not many.   
The air was cool and refreshing. He called his sister and they spoke for about an hour about being settled in and all, he told her about Dream, Wilbur and Karl too. By the time he hung up he had walked all the way over to the football pitch at the other end of the school. He could see all of the players running around doing drills but couldn’t make out which one was his roommate so he walked back to the dorm.   
Oh the way he bumped into Wilbur, he was walking alone and noticed George. He got a bit nervous but he was fine because it was only Wilbur and there weren’t any new people. Wilbur walked towards him,  
“Hello!” he said in a very upbeat tone,  
“Hi,” George replied with a smile. His nerves were quickly put at ease as they walked and talked towards the lunch hall. George quickly texted Dream to let him know where he was and then carried on into the hall. Wilbur said that he was happy he bumped into George actually,  
“Yes, I was going to have to eat alone otherwise,” he didn’t look sad but a little vacant,  
“What about Techno and Tommy?” George asked,  
“Well Techno has football practice and Tommy has seemingly become very popular within his grade,” he explained as they both looked at the group of freshmen in front of them in which Tommy seemed to be in the center of, “Besides if they were to both sit with me it wouldn’t have gone down well. Tommy doesn’t like Techno. Probably would have ended in some kind of angry argument,” he laughed although nothing was funny. Wilbur was slightly odd like that but overall nice to be around so George considered them friends still. 

Throughout the meal they talked about interests and how big their dorms were. George and Dream’s was fairly spacious but Wilbur’s was the opposite. He said it was small, dark and cupboard-like. He was over exaggerating but still wanted to preach his point. He said he didn’t mind too much because he was on his own and luckily didn’t have to share with anyone. Somehow they got onto the topic of music and immediately there was a spark: two british boys talking about odd british bands just really pulls two people together. The conversation was no longer small talk and was fully underway on the verge of argument about the better of two bands. Wilbur and George were both into the indie-pop// indie-rock genres and turns out they had a lot of common albums though Wilbur had a record player rather than a CD player.   
They had begun to walk out of the hall and have a debate about whether concert tickets should be cheaper or more expensive, when Dream walked past looking very rosy from the cold, he winked at George as they passed, making George blush a little. He soon got back on track and was chatting with Wilbur again.  
Wilbur came back to George's room for a while and they listened to music from the CD player. George was suddenly very glad he brought it all with him after second guessing it at home. Sharing it with Wilbur wasn’t the only reason he didn't regret it, he thought about the song with Dream then pushed the thought out of his mind.  
“What lessons do you have on Monday?” Wilbur asked. George handed him his timetable,  
“Let us know if we have any together,” George said with a smile.  
They had 3 classes together which was nice. They were music, maths and history. George and Wilbur were both in top set for maths and were also in top set for music so they were pleased with the outcome.

Wilbur had left and it was getting dark. Music was still playing from the CD player so George put on some Vampire Weekend on in the background while he made his bed again and pulled out his German and history notes as they were his first two lessons in the morning. He had compared his timetable to Dream’s and they were in the same class for Chemistry, Biology, Physics and English, this meant his last lesson of the day would be shared with Dream. He felt good about this as he pinned his timetable to the wall behind his desk. He still needed to go and collect his uniform but he could do that tomorrow, for now he studied the reasons why Elizabeth I was a shit queen while humming along to “A-Punk”.

“Hey,” Dream said as he came through the door, he stopped and looked at George who was now upside-down dangling off of the end of his bead reading a history textbook, “You good?” he asked, laughing as he put his football stuff in a corner. George looked up,  
“Mhm, how was practice?” He felt a bit like a mum saying it but he may as well ask, besides, he was interested,  
“It was good,” he paused, “Have you been here on your own since I left?” Dream felt guilty but he couldn’t babysit George the whole time,  
“No actually,” George said as he swung himself back up so he could lean up against the back wall. Dream sat next to him, “I was with Wilbur. You saw us at the lunch hall?” George said.   
“Oh yeah I did, I remember,”  
“He came back here too for about an hour, hope you don’t mind,” he said sheepishly as if he was about to get told off,  
“No! I don’t mind at all, I’m just glad you’re making friends,” Dream said with a smile. George playfully pushed him away at the mildly soppy remark. They talked a little longer about nothing then Dream went to go have a shower.  
He got in and soon realised he had forgotten his shampoo on his desk because they had used all of the tiny pots that the school gave them. He put a towel around his bottom half and walked back into the room,  
“Everything oka-” George started before looking up. His face turned bright red. George stared at his muscles for a few seconds then quickly looked at a wall not making eye contact. Dream just chuckled at him,  
“You like what you see huh?” He laughed striking a pose, this only made George’s face blush more,  
“A warning would’ve been nice,” He muttered trying desperately to keep his eyes focused on the wall and not the half-naked boy in front of him,  
“Can’t a man get his shampoo without having to give a warning?” Dream said playfully and was still laughing at George when he got back into the shower.  
Things were weird between him and George and they both knew it. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but it was just the fact that no two people get on that well, that quickly having never met and having completely different friend circles. Neither of them complained but they both thought it was a bit odd how they talked as if they had known each other for years. Sure, they had their moments of secrecy but it wasn’t to the point where they felt awkward or anything. It just felt as if they were already best friends.   
While Dream was in the shower, George asked himself “What the fuck was that, George? Why’d you fucking blush?” He decided he would push the entire situation out of his mind and just forget about it. He thought about going to sleep so he wouldn’t have to talk to Dream about it but it was only 9:30pm so it would be obvious, instead he just stared at his history notes some more.  
When Dream got out of the shower it was fine and he didn’t mention it but George was still anxious. He also didn’t have anything to do so it wasn’t like he could distract himself. He just scrolled through twitter as Dream dried his hair,  
“Truth or dare?” he said,  
“What?” George was visibly confused,  
“Truth or dare?” he asked again. George thought about this,  
“Truth,” he regretted playing already,  
“How many relationships have you been in?” Dream asked. George's eyes widened, it could be worse but woah,  
“2,” It was Dream’s turn to look surprised,  
“2?” He looked as if George was lying,   
“Yep, how about you?”  
“Like 9,”   
“Oh,” they sat in a comfortable silence,  
“Tell me then? What were they like?”   
George didn’t like talking about himself too much so he was reluctant but eventually came around and told Dream about the 2 girls he had been out with. He explained that the first one was way back in year 6 and they spent almost every day of the summer playing in the woods together from when the sun came up to when it set. They had picnics with jam sandwiches cut into triangles sometimes, George was very happy at this point in his life but they broke up about a month into year 7 as she changed into one of those gossipy, mean, popular girls and ended up being mean to George too everyone had labeled him as a nerd. He told Dream that he was devastated by this as this was the first person he had ever dated, they had even kissed! He left the bit of the story out about how George had cried for a few days about it because it seemed pretty pathetic.   
The other girl was a little more serious because they were older. They had broken up 3 months ago actually after dating for about a year and a half. This girl wasn’t mean at all, she was one of those girls that would help you with anything no matter who you were because she was just genuinely nice and wanted to help. George enjoyed his relationship with this girl a lot and so was the girl, he thought it would last because he loved her but it evidently not. It was more of a snowball effect which caused the breakup. Bottom line is that George has trouble telling people he loves them, he just can't do it and this girl was no different. She didn’t understand and it ended up in her yelling,  
“Why can’t you say you love me?” George tried to say it a bunch of times but he couldn’t. She knew he loved her but why did she need him to say it. She then said something to George which he would never forget, “Do you not love me?”. She said it in a small voice and it broke George. He did love her, he just couldn’t say it, he tried to explain but she just didn’t get it. They ended up breaking up a week later but on good terms. They said that they would still be friends but neither really made any effort to talk to the other so they just didn’t talk, they didn’t hate each other they just didn’t really talk anymore. George was very upset about this but didn’t want to come across as clingy so he ignored her a lot. He felt like a dick but it was the only thing he could do.   
After finishing the explanations Dream looked very taken aback not having heard anything about George’s personal life at all. George suddenly snaps back into reality after reminiscing in the nostalgia and picks up Dreams facial expressions,  
“I’m sorry, I overshared,”  
“I asked it’s fine,”   
“How about you then? What was it like with your 9 girlfriends,” he said with a smile  
“Most of them weren’t that important being honest,” said Dream with a sigh, he wanted what George and the nice girl had, it seemed nice until the end,  
“Oh come on, if u dont want to say all of them tell me first, last and most important,” George said,  
“Okay fine. Hm, the first girlfriend must’ve been in 5th Grade so ‘year6’ for you. I just remember I really liked this girl. Like I really liked her and it was obvious she didn’t like me so I was always trying to impress her by doing all of these cool bike tricks and holding her books and all that cliche stuff, it was funny really how much of a simp I was. In the end after bugging her for about a month to go on a date with me she said she would. She said that if she liked me and the date she would be my girlfriend but if she didn't then no hard feelings but she wouldn't be my girlfriend and i would have to stop bugging her. At this, little 10 year old me was ecstatic, I still remember what I wore to the date, a pair of dark blue jeans and a green polo shirt. I looked smart but casual enough and she wore this blue summer dress, I thought she looked very pretty so I told her and she looked rather flustered so I was quite smug as well,” Dream said with a laugh, “I think we went to a McDonalds or something like that because it was fast food, she ended up liking the date and me so we started dating but broke up before Middle school because she was going to a different one across town which was kinda sad,”   
“Aw, young love,” said George laughing. It was pitch black outside and the lightbulb in the room wasn’t doing a good job so they had to turn on some more lamps which gave the room a cozy, warm hue, “Next girlfriend go, I’m invested,”  
“Right okay um, my last girlfriend was a bitch,” George’s eyes widened as Dream started to look angry,  
“You don’t have to talk about her, I don’t mind!” he said quickly before things could escalate,  
“No it’s fine she was just downright rude and I never realised it. We met in Middle school and one day she admitted to having a huge crush on me. I was surprised because she was very pretty and i didnt think she would like someone like me, she basically asked me out and so I said yes. A similar story to the last one in the sense that we both liked each other so we dated for a while, our dates were fun but she seemed less interested each time so I pulled her up on it, she got really angry out of nowhere and just shouted at me, I didn’t know what to do and didn’t like being confronted so I shouted back. I regret shouting at her but she had shouted some nasty things at me first so I kind of had the right. I told her that night that I enjoyed her company but I was breaking up with her, she cried and told me to stay but I wasn't going to. Then she tried to blackmail me into not leaving but I wasn't falling into that trap. Afterwards, my friends told me how manipulative she was and how I hadn’t noticed, I guess the saying ‘love is blind’ was true in my case,” Dream said with a laugh,  
“I'm not sure that's quite what it means but okay,” George said laughing back, “Seriously though, that sounds like shit. I’m glad you dumped her,”   
“Yeah,” said Dream, “I don’t really have a most important relationship because they were all pretty much petty 3 week long ones from middle school unlike your 2,” he said.  
They played more truth or dare until about 1am to celebrate their last night of freedom but it was basically truth or truth as it was obvious that neither of them were going to pick dare,  
“Ok, ok last one George,” said Dream after wheezing with him about some dumb joke they both made, “Would you ever date a guy?” This one caught George off guard,  
“W- what?” he said,  
“Yeah, would you?”   
“Probably not, I mean I’m straight,” The second the words came out of his mouth, he immediately questioned it, “Would you?”  
“I have never really thought about it,” said Dream, lying, “I don’t think I would but you never know what's going to happen really,” he turned to face George, “You look tired,”   
“Hm, I guess girls are kinda weird anyway,” Dream suddenly became much more alert of the conversation knowing full well he would date a boy. He didn’t expect that answer. George noticed the look on Dream’s face, “They are, and they are all pretty much the same. Makeup, short skirts, worrying about impressing the boys all the time. They also think they are better than everyone else, kind of annoying I guess,” said George in a ranty tone. Dream just looked at him,  
“I guess so but it’s easier to just be straight, right?” said Dream with a sigh. He had pondered his sexuality many times but could never see himself with a guy so it always led him back to being straight. It bothered him that he always got back there because straight men don't try to picture themselves with other men all the time. George looked at him softly, “I’m going to bed,”  
“Oh, goodnight Dream,”  
“Goodnight George,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, kudos and bookmarks r really appreciated :D


	3. Rain and vinyls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George's leaves and Dream shits himself about it. Also Wilbur shows him the album 16/04/16 by cavetown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey :)  
> im sorry this is such an irregular upload pattern, its every 6 days i think? but yeah i hope you like this chapter, it is mainly focused on George and Wilbur's friendship but ch 4 and 5 have a fair bit of dnf :)  
> but yeah enjoy <3

The digital clock beside George read 6:32 am. It was an odd time to be up because it’s not like you could go back to sleep for 40 minutes as it would be weird but it was too early for anything else. He didn’t want to go on his phone as it would create light and it might wake Dream up so he just sat. He sat bolt upright in his bed. He looked around the room at the plants and posters.   
He took a proper look at Dream’s side of the room for once, he had some film posters and a lot about human anatomy. He had a flag that George did not recognise so assumed it was the Floridian flag because that's where he grew up.   
He had pictures too of people he didn’t know. There was one that was larger than the rest and kind of in the middle of the wall. It had 4 people in the photo, 3 girls and a boy. The man was very tall in comparison to the others but shared the blonde hair with the others, George assumed this was Dream. There was a younger girl who looked about 13 and had very long, blond hair and another who had shorter hair who looked 18 maybe. The oldest woman in the photo stood next to Dream and the youngest girl. George figured this was his mother as they shared so many features with her, he assumed the girls must be his sisters then. There was no other man in the picture so perhaps it was his dad who took the photo.   
George looked around more at the posters of cars and computer games showing themselves through gaps of the hanging plants George had put up. Dream had luckily shared his love for greenery and they had a total of 14 plants in their room dotted around. They had even given names to the larger ones too, the biggest was in the corner near the mini-fridge and he was called Timmy and stood next to Timmy, was Beth. They intertwined with each other sometimes and George thought it was cute that even plants could be in love. There were many others hanging from the ceiling too along with other things that dangled. There were ‘worms on a string’ and faux vines that they had gotten from Amazon.   
On George’s side of the room it was mainly music related with many A3/A4 posters ranging from Two Door Cinema Club to The Vengaboys to Scouting For Girls to Oasis and back to Fountains of Wayne. His CD collection was neatly on a shelf below a polaroid collage that was yet to be finished as George didn't have enough photos for it yet. The white polaroid camera stood next to the player on the shelf along with some spare film. George had photos too but not nearly as many as Dream, he had only 2 friends while growing up in Britain, one of which would never, ever have his picture taken but he had plenty of pictures without his face from various things they did so George would still remember him. George also had stickers, a few handwritten letters on his wall and a signature monster can tower.  
After what felt like thinking for a long time, he noticed the rain. It sounded nice compared to the dull sound of yesterday’s heat. He decided to go on a walk.  
One he had changed, he left the room as quietly as he could and went downstairs to the residences foyer, no one was there so he just left to the field.   
He walked back up to the Athletics track/football field and ended up sitting in the covered watching area. He forgot his phone back in his dorm so he didn’t know the time but the sun was rising so he assumed it was about ten past 7. He carried on walking past the sport facilities and found a large pond with fish swimming around in it. The fish were orange and white, George recognised them as Koi fish. They swam gracefully around in the pond and he watched for a while. The rain would hit the pond and form all these ripples and the fish would swim away from them in fear.  
After about 10 minutes he started walking back. He was completely soaked through at this point having only put on a windbreaker and not any kind of water-proof jacket. In his defence the rain had become heavier as he walked.  
He walked through the bleachers again for some shelter but it didn’t provide much. George had also started to shiver. He decided he was going to make no detours and just head straight back as opposed to running errands before he would go back. He had all day so it was fine, besides he really needed a shower.

“Where the hell have you been?!” He heard Dream say as he walked through the door, “Holy fucking shit are you okay?” he added once he saw the shivering state of George. He ran a hand through his hair in a panicked manor,  
“Oh your up, Good morning,” said George  
“Good morning,” Dream returned with an exasperated laugh, “You didn’t answer the questions,”  
“I- What?,” he looked at Dream who was looking very worried, “Oh yeah I’m fine, I just went on a walk,”  
“For 2 hours in the rain?” Dream replied quickly. Had it really been two hours?  
“Yeah, and 2 hours, really?” George said, confused. He really thought he had only been out for about 40 minutes,  
“Yeah, and you left your phone here,” Dream was in less of a panic now but was still a bit worried, “You sure you’re okay? You’re shaking,” said Dream,  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” said George quietly. Being completely honest he thought Dream would still be asleep by the time he got back,  
“Hey, it’s okay. C’mere,” he pulled George into an unexpected hug, he could feel George shaking from the cold, “I’m just glad you didn’t die in the storm, dumbass,” Dream chuckled as George slowly reciprocates, “Who leaves the house at 6:45 to go on a walk during a tropical storm?” George laughed at him and they stood in the embrace for a while,  
“I’ll leave a note next time, Mum” He said with a smirk,  
“Don’t be cocky with me, Georgie. But yeah, please do leave a note. Now go have a shower you smell of rain,” said Dream, he blushed at the nickname and broke the hug to go and start the shower.  
“Dream!! Hurry up!” George yells back into the room as Dream was putting on a pair of black converse to match the dark brown corduroy trousers and beige button up he was wearing. George thought he looked nice but would look even nicer if he would hurry up. George himself was wearing a large white shirt tucked into some blue jeans with a colourful, patterned shirt he found. He didn’t look as good as Dream but he looked put-together enough,  
“I am hurrying up, just the shoelaces don’t like me that’s all,” He shouts back and after a minute or so, Dream emerged, “Hello,”  
“C’mon, Karl said he wanted to meet us for breakfast so that’s why we have to look semi decent,” said George as they walked down the corridors to the stairwell,  
“He probably just wants to talk about Winter Formal,” said Dream, “He is on the planning team,”  
“Winter is in 4 months?” said George,  
“Yeah I know, you better strap yourself in because it’s all he will talk about for the next 4 months,” Dream said with a chuckle.  
As if Dream could predict the future, Karl wanted help formulating ideas to submit to the event board. Dream mouthed a ‘told you’ to George which made him laugh,  
“I don’t even know how these things work so I am of no use to you, apologies Karl,” laughed George  
“You were here for last year’s one though, right?” Karl asked desperately,  
“Nope, I went home early because my old dog died and my family lost their shit. Besides, it was only one weekend,” George said with a shrug, “Anyways, explain your American customs to me,”  
“Alright. Well there is the girls’ school about 8 miles away from here and both schools meet up in the big hall on the south of our campus sometime in December and the different sets of grades have different nights. Juniors and Seniors on Friday night and Freshmen and Sophomores on Saturday night usually. It’s super crowded but it’s worth it. We do other things with the girls school academically before the formal so you will have plenty of time to get to know and pick a lucky lady,” said Karl with a giggle,  
“Who said I was going at all?” George retorted with half a croissant in his mouth,  
“C’mon Georgie, you have to go. I will personally take you as my date if you're worried about that,” Dream said jokingly to him. George’s face went red as he swatted Dream. He wheezed in response,  
“Yeah, you have to go. It’s basically the biggest event of the year and that overrides Homecoming so,” said Karl with a hint of pride in his voice,  
“I’ll think about it,” said George. He would think about going but he would probably end up staying in his dorm watching an anime movie instead. Anyway, you have to dress up smartly for that and George didn’t own any smart clothes like suits, “What’s the dress code this year?” he asked, trying to change the subject off of him. Karl started on this long tangent about the dress code and George listened politely the whole time adding in “yeah”s and “oh okays” when necessary.  
They had finished breakfast and were being kicked out of the lunch hall as the wave of kids who had woken up late were flooding into the hall. Karl thanked them for the help and went into the school building to go run errands. Dream also ended up leaving because he was going to meet Sapnap somewhere to go talk football strats with a few other people from the team leaving George on his own again. He ends up going back to his room to play minecraft for a few hours until people come back.  
About half an hour into an intense bedwars game his phone rings. The name on the phone read “Wilbur”  
“Hello?” said his deep voice, “I hope I’m not disturbing anything but I found a new record and would like to show it to you,” Wilbur said almost sheepishly. George smiled from ear-to-ear,  
“Absolutely, where are you?” He liked how Wilbur had thought of him. He considered this a ‘close-friendship’ now,  
“34A” The older boy replied, “It’s across the left bridge,” The bridges connected the two halves of the accommodation buildings from the entrance area. The bridges were often decorated at different occasions so they were pretty iconic in an architectural way,  
“I’m on my way now,” said George before he hung up. True to his word, George walked over the indoor bridge, down the hall and knocked on the room that read 34A, “Hello!” he said as Wilbur opened the door,  
“Hey,” he said gesturing George in, “Excuse the mess,”  
“No worries. Jesus, you weren’t kidding when you said it was small in here,” George said as he looked around the room. It was probably the size of a large bathroom. Wilbur was on the top floor so the eaves of the roof ate into his room space. Wilbur seemed to have adapted though, pushing his bed lengthways across the one side with eaves and peppering the wall with band posters similar to George’s.   
Wilbur had shelves with boxes in them and a chest of drawers instead of a wardrobe, he hung his uniform for tomorrow from a hook he had put in the ceiling near his window. The uniform blocked out a lot of sunlight as would makeshift curtains but a warm glow came from the room due to a few salt lamps dotted around.   
Wilbur had a lot less photos in his room than in Georges and a lot less plants. His lack of these things were made up by country flags and random convention and concert tickets on the walls. The centrepiece of his room was obviously his record player and his overflowing shelf of records. Wilbur crouched down next to the shelf looking for the record he wanted and pulled it out,  
“Here!” he said enthusiastically, “I wanted to show you this one because it reminded me of you. I found it today at the record store and it was going to 50% off so I thought why not,” The record was green and had a date as a title,  
“16/04/16” George said slowly, “I haven’t heard of it, who’s it by?” he asked as he ran his finger down the spine of the cardboard cover,  
“Some guy called Cavetown,” Wilbur said, “I also had never heard of him before I found this,” he looked up and took the record back to put it in the player. When it began to play, it started out with some synth piano notes and some raspy electric guitar. The two boys nodded their head in time with the slow tempo, “When it gets into it, the lyrics of some of the songs reminded me of you, that’s all,” Wilbur said. George smiled at him as he swayed his head to the calm tune of the song. He took the sleeve and looked at the name of the song. It read “night knuckles”. It was very calm and vibey in his opinion. He was still thinking about how his friend could compare him to the song. He didn’t see a link and Wilbur picked up on this,  
“The next song,” he said calmly.  
bg noise.  
Once the intro had played and it went into the first verse George immediately saw the analogy. He sat very quietly until the end of the song. It only lasted about 2 and a half minutes but every note seemed to hit very close to home. As soon as the harsh electric guitar of the next song began to play George looked up at Wilbur, He didn’t know what to say really. He didn’t know whether to be offended or not. Wilbur looked scared as if George had gotten the wrong idea which he probably had,  
“Can I hear it again?” he said out of nowhere,  
“I- uh sure,” Wilbur said. He was confused because he thought he was going to get shouted at for inferring George was weak. Instead George just sat there listening to the song again in silence. He was looking at the record spin, bumping every now and again.  
“Get a load of this man without a plan  
He doesn't wanna go to school but doesn't wanna upset his dad just  
Get out of bed, it's not that easy  
When your throat goes cold and your arms feel queasy  
Been in this state for one too many days  
And everyone I love is so many miles away”  
George finally looked up at Wilbur,  
“I guess you were right, the lyrics are rather relatable to my circumstance,” he laughed softly. Wilbur sighed just glad that his new friend didn’t despise him,  
“Yeah,” he said, “I thought you would be mad at me but I’m glad your not,”  
Other songs from the album played while they chatted about nothing together. Before they knew it it had been 4 hours. They had realised as Wilbur was logging onto his PC to “friend” George on Minecraft and had seen the time,  
“Hey, didn’t you get here at around 12?”  
“Yeah why?”  
“It’s 4:30 now,”  
“Holy shit I better go, I still haven't gotten my books ready,” Said George. Wilbur laughed at him, “Thanks for having me, I’m probably not going to be at dinner so I’ll see you tomorrow,”  
“Bye,” and with that George was walking very fast back to his dorm. He had slipped up already without leaving a note in the morning so he decided to text Dream so he wouldn’t be pissed. “hey. i was in wilbur’s room, im just heading back now :]” he sent to Dream. Hopefully he would see it before George got back.  
When he opened the door Dream was sat on his bed looking at something on his phone,  
“You sure do hate me, don’t you,” he said with a laugh,  
“I- uh. No I don’t!” George stuttered, he in fact liked Dream quite a lot and he was a very close friend to him now,  
“I’m kidding, don't worry,” He said looking up, “D’you have fun?”  
“Yeah, he wanted to show me a record and we ended up losing track of time. Did you enjoy talking about football strats?” he replied,  
“Yeah, it was okay,” he looked back down at his phone, “I’m just trying to find a good movie,” George walked over and peered over at the phone while leaning on Dream’s shoulder, “Have you seen any of these?” he said as he was looking up at George,  
“No,” George looked down into the other’s eyes but was snapped back to reality as his phone pinged and Dream went to see who it was. He stood awkwardly as Dream checked his phone and eventually slumped off back to his PC. Minecraft was still running in the background so he shut it down,  
“Do you know any good movies that we could watch?” said Dream after a while. George didn’t say anything for a while,  
“The Studio Ghibli films are cool. Spirited Away is pretty good but I don’t know if it’s your thing or not,” he replied quietly,  
“Come over here so you can see too then,” he said, patting the spot next to him and beckoning George to sit down. George walked over and Dream got his laptop out as it had a bigger screen.  
They had watched the film, well Dream had fallen asleep on George about half way through and George flitted between watching the film and watching Dream. While he was asleep he got a chance to actually look at him, he had medium, blonde hair which had highlights from the sun in there too. He had a lot of freckles across his nose and upper cheeks. The rest of his cheeks were rosy and he had barely any blemishes on his face. George honestly believed that Dream could be a model with a face like that, he was the pinnacle of attractive. George couldn’t think that though because they were friends, two straight friends mind you and they wouldn’t be anything more so George pushed the thought of being attracted to the sleeping man right out of his mind.  
On his shoulder, the man stirred and George whispered in his ear for him to wake up as the film was coming to an end anyway,  
“Hey, you fell asleep,” George whispered softly with a smile,  
“Did I?” Dream whispered back as he wiped his face with his hand. He realised he was draped over George and sat upright again, “Sorry,” he said almost shamefully. George was unsuccessful in getting rid of the thoughts.  
“It’s okay, was the movie really that boring,” he smirked and Dream looked mildly alarmed before seeing the smile on the other’s face that indicated that it was a joke, “I’m joking. Get some real sleep though. You have school tomorrow,” He said in a mocking tone as if he were an annoying parent from back home. Before he stood up Dream embraced him in a sleepy hug. George was taken aback but wasn’t complaining. He returned the affection,  
“Thanks for being a good pillow,” Dream said quietly into George’s shoulder, still with a hint of sleep in his voice,  
“No problem, all included in that roommate deal,” he chuckled while still whispering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, its me but at the bottom this time,  
> kudos and bookmarks r really appreciated and feel free comment if you like it or i made any mistakes so i can edit them :]  
> bye!


	4. long phone calls about everything and nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1st day of school and George talks to his sister on the phone aw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> Hope everyone is doing well, I just realised but this chapter ends just the way it started but hey who cares.  
> Next chapter will be v fun i think so hang around and because its prewritten, depending on how fast i write this next chapter, it might be out early ;)

Light shone through the blinds and George’s phone was vibrating from an alarm that he set the night before. The light was overwhelming compared to the dark, cosy atmosphere of the night before. He stirred before picking up his phone to turn it off, he had 2 new unreads, 1 from his sister asking how everything was and whether he was settled in and the other was from Wilbur asking if he would be at breakfast. He replied to Wilbur with a thumbs up and to his sister a message saying he would call her after school had finished,  
“Rise and shine,” said a chipper voice above George making him jump out of his skin,  
“Jesus christ,” he said turning round, “Good morning,”  
“Sorry, but you need to get up,” Dream said, giving George a gentle prod.

“Okay 10L quiet down,” said the man at the front of the class, everyone hushed their chatter. It was 8:40 and George had slumped down in his form class, he recognised the ginger man as Mr. Philza, he was George's form tutor and history teacher.  
The forms were assigned at the beginning of the previous year so everyone already knew people in the form, George however had made no effort to interact with anyone last year so he sat alone in the corner still. Other boys in the form would sometimes stare or whisper but George didn’t care in the slightest. He used to, a lot but not so much anymore because the opinions are worthless to him,  
“Today we will have to go over the rules and notices as with the beginning of any year, and welcome new ones of course too,” said the man instructively. George took this opportunity to zone out and before he knew it, it was time for German. 

The first day breezed by quickly and before long it was lunchtime. He had History with Wilbur and they had shared some playful banter throughout the lesson to Mr. Philza’s mild annoyance. He didn’t pull them up on it though because the teacher knew that in the previous academic year, George had no friends so he was happy for him but would be even more so if they didn’t mess around quite as much.  
After history was a study period so George went to the library to start on a history assignment, it was pretty easy research so he had almost finished when the bell rang for lunch. Students flooded the halls and George had forgotten quite how overwhelming it was. Just as he had left his locker to go to lunch, a firm hand grabbed one of his shoulders. He spun around like a bat out of hell only to realise it was Dream,  
“Hey!” the taller boy said loudly over the noise of the busy corridor,  
“Hi,” George replied and Dream took his hand off of his shoulder. They both began to walk to lunch,  
“I haven’t seen you all day, where have you been?” Dream said with the tiniest hint of sadness in his voice,  
“Oh um, I had German and History,” he said apologetically. He didn’t want to come across as arrogant or callous towards Dream,  
“Where were you at break and study?” he questioned some more but with curiosity this time,  
“I went to some vending machine to get a granola bar at break then headed to history,” he said, “Why? Where were you?” he asked,  
“Looking for you, of course Georgie,” Dream grinned and looked down at him,  
“You could've chosen a better nickname,” George muttered as he looked at the floor.  
The lunch hall was packed like George had never seen it before. Last year he would frequently skip meals or eat in the hall once everyone else had gone to avoid social interactions but now was peak time and George looked just as anxious as he did when he met Dream,  
“Hey,” the blonde boy said to George, picking up the mood change, “You already know these people, you’ll be fine,” He smiled softly at George who gave him a crooked, half smile in return.  
Dream was right as it was only Sapnap, Karl and Quackity who were at the lunch table before Dream and George got there. When they sat down Quackity and Sapnap were arguing over whether someone had cheated in a game or not, it seemed very heated so George just sat and watched silently,  
“Sorry,” Karl exclaimed sheepishly to George,  
“It’s fine, free entertainment I guess,” the dark haired boy chuckled. By this time, Dream had sided with Sapnap and had gotten involved in the debate much to Quackity’s dismay. Karl and George chatted peacefully throughout the ordeal until it had been resolved,  
“He didn’t cheat though! There are so many facts to support it, are you blind?!” ranted Sapnap and Quackity shook his head,  
“You may have won this time but believe me, next time will be a different story,” Quackity huffed after he aggressively pointed at Sapnap,  
“You done?” Karl laughed at them. George looked mildly uncomfortable and out of place with the new people, partly because he didn't know what they were on about and partly because Quackity kept looking at him really weirdly. Dream gave him a questioning look as if to ask “everything alright?” and George just nodded in return. Dream’s eyes lingered on George but he eventually went back to talking with Sapnap and eating. The boys squabbled a lot less now and Dream had roped Karl and George into the discussion.  
Before long George was chatting along with them all after most of the nerves had subsided but he could still feel Quackity’s eyes on him.  
Lunch had gone quickly and the two roommates had excused themselves to go back to their locker’s to get Chemistry books,  
“You ever spoken to Quackity?” said the blonde boy as soon as they were out of earshot of the others,  
“What?” George said in a very confused tone, “ Where did that come from?”  
“Why does he look at you like that so much?” Was Dream being defensive? “He looks like he wants to kiss the shit out of you, what’s up with that?” George was getting increasingly surprised and slightly scared,  
“What are you on about?” he was genuinely confused, “Are you okay?” he looked up at Dream who seemed to be avoiding eye contact once he had heard the sincerity of the other’s voice. They had reached George’s locker now and the blonde boy stared straight ahead, “Hey,” George said in a softer tone trying to get in Dream’s eyeline, he didn’t know what was bothering Dream so much about the other boy but something was clearly up with him, “What’s wrong?”  
“So you haven’t spoken to him?” he said quietly as if he were trying to hide something. He looked like a child who was being told off,  
“No, you have literally seen me around anyone bar you and Wilbur, why would I voluntarily talk to Quackity?” he was beginning to get worried for him, “Has something happened?”  
“No, it’s okay and forget it. Don’t sweat it,” he says returning his speech back to his normal, bubbly, confident self,  
“Do you want to talk about it later?” George said, catching Dream slightly off-guard. He didn’t say anything and just looked down at him which said he did want to talk about it but he also really didn’t. George didn’t push any further.  
Chemistry was interesting to say the least. George had been partnered with some small, ginger boy called Fundy, the teacher had announced that next week the girls’ school would be coming down for a chemistry showcase and each of the partners would be paired with another from the girls school. Both George and Fundy looked terrified. They didn’t speak much during the lesson but they had both learned that they both knew Wilbur so they had both come to the conclusion of each other that they were nice enough people.  
The rest of the lesson went by in a breeze as it was mainly just an introduction lesson going over safety rules, equipment and handing out new textbooks to those who didn’t have them yet. George had occasionally stolen a glance from Dream who was seated across the room and whenever they did Dream would pull a funny face which would make George laugh under his breath at his attempts at humour. 

“Georgie I’m bored and that dragged,” whined Dream as they left the science lab and headed to residence building A,  
“I thought it was quite fun actually,” George said and Dream gave him a look, “With the newfound knowledge of future socialisation, I’m really looking forward to this term!” he said with sarcastic enthusiasm as Dream rolled his eyes at him, “What the fuck are you even supposed to say to a female?” he muttered,  
“Strange species is the woman,” Dream laughed.

When they got back to their room Dream had a shower and George put on an old CD while finishing off his history assignment from earlier. Other than that, he had been set no other homeworks which was good, he decided to use his time to live up to his promise of calling his sister who had been bugging him ever since he landed in America. The facetime pended for a few rings but eventually someone picked up,  
“You finally called me back, bitch,” came a teenage girls voice from inside the phone  
“Yeah it seems as if I have, thanks Captain Obvious,” he teased with a grin and a giggle came from the phone. George was a lot looser around his sister as they had pretty much been best friends since they were born. Olivia was a year and a half younger than George and was in Year 9 also in some boarding school somewhere in the British countryside. They had both wanted to go to a boarding school since they were little and had wanted to go together but when George got invited to go to L’manburg School, his sister was ecstatic and insisted he went. She told him it was the perfect opportunity and that she would be fine on her own, George still liked her company and she was the person he missed most so he tried to make a special effort to talk to her whenever he could even after a year of attending the school already. It surprised him how close they still were even after all of the time and distance, he wasn’t complaining though.  
They spoke some more for around an hour about various things like how school had been going for his sister as she had started a week before George, what America was like and they talked about Dream too and George even introduced him to Liv,  
“Wow, the infamous Dream,” she said from down the line and a faint pink blush dusted George’s face as she spoke, “Grog mentioned you a couple of times,”  
“Grog?” said Dream skeptically,  
“Yeah ‘cus he was always tired in the mornings and refused to get out of bed, Groggy, Grog,”  
“I see,” said Dream with a smirk. George knew he was going to get shit for this later,  
“Okay that’s enough of that, how’s things with you and Jakey? You said it yourself that you thought he was leng,” George taunted and Liv went silent. George grinned at the camera,  
“Shut up,” she said with a small smile.  
They spoke about random things and teased each other with banter for around another 40 minutes before hanging up as she had to go help do some chores. After his introduction, Dream had slumped off to his laptop to go do some Computer Science assignment but as soon as George was off of the call he shouted,  
“You ready to go to dinner GROG,” the grin in his voice was unmissable,  
“Oh my god,” George couldn’t say he was surprised but he was still mildly pissed, “Fuck off, Dreamboat,” he rolled his eyes and got changed out of his uniform into sweats and a T-shirt,  
“Hm, Georgie or Grog?” he said with a smirk eyes still focused on the HTML formatting,  
“Oh, push off you cannot call me Grog in front of people,” he buried his face in his hands for comedic effect,  
“Georgie it is then,” Dream winked at him. George groaned, “Let me finish this then we can go,”  
Dinner was the same old but this time Dream sat between Quackity and George, he suspected this had something to do with the outburst at the last mealtime but mostly ignored it. He, however, could not ignore Quackity who was trying very hard to make conversation with George instead of just staring at him this time. It began as small talk about hobbies but quickly grew into a deeper conversation about minecraft as they had realised they both play. They talked about mobs and the best shaders and texture packs to use and both seemed fairly invested in the conversation. On the other side of the table it appeared that Karl and Sapnap were playfully flirting with each other. Dream didn’t really know what was going on about minecraft as he had never heard of the game and he couldn’t really join in with Sapnap’s conversation so he just sat there trying to involve himself in the minecraft one every now and again.  
Quackity ended up asking for George’s number and they exchanged digits while Dream sat there with a parental look on his face the whole time. He knew he couldn’t butt in to say no as it wasn’t his place to but he knew something was up with Quackity which he wasn’t so happy about. Once the boy had started chatting with Karl again, George gave Dream a look, the same look of worry mixed with curiosity that he had painted across his face when they had spoken about the beanie boy previously. He was worried about his friend and he was going to find out why but at this, Dream looked terrified at the thought of talking about it,  
“I was going to ask you about it sometime anyway,” George says merely above a whisper, reading Dream’s mind. He shook his head in response and shrugged at him.  
The dinner took longer than lunch because they had all the time in the world just to talk, plus it was the first day back so they treated themselves. George was very tired from the whole day and ended up falling in and out of light sleep on Dream’s shoulder which neither kicked up a fuss about. Dream had wondered how George could possibly be asleep in the bustling noise of the lunch hall but whatever works,  
“Go take your mans to bed, he is literally out cold,” said Sapnap jokingly. Dream looked down at the boy who had just passed out on him,  
“Yeah,” he said in reply, “I don’t think I'm going to back down so I’ll see you all in the morning,” Dream said to the other 3 boys as he slung George over his shoulders as carefully as possible. He smiled and headed back to his room with the boy draped over his shoulders in a piggy back. He was very light to going up stairs wasn’t hard at all but the bumping up the stairs made George stir,  
“Huh?” he whispered in a very sleepy voice, “Where are we?” Dream personally thought this was very adorable but would never admit to it,  
“Almost at home. You fell asleep at dinner, Georgie,” he replied matching George’s volume not to alarm him,  
“You can put me down,” he said with a shaky, tired voice, “I can walk,” he yawned,  
“It’s fine don’t worry,” whispered Dream and about a minute they got back to the dorm room. George stayed on his back now half awake as Dream unlocked the door. He walked over to George’s bed and the smaller boy untangled himself from Dream,  
“It’s only 11pm?” he said, still very sleepily. Dream smiles a little,  
“Yeah but go to bed,” he says quietly in response. George hums a reply as got dressed into pyjama bottoms and crawled into bed, “Goodnight, Georgie,” he barely whispers but George was already asleep. 

George was awoken by his alarm on Saturday morning much to his dismay. He looked around and the sun was poking through the gaps of the curtains. He looked over at Dream’s side of the room only to find an empty, well made bed.  
George knew he was just at football practice, he had told him the night before in case George woke up and didn’t know where Dream was, but he still felt sad as he hadn’t woken up alone in the room before since he got here. It felt as if he had been here a lot longer than eight days and the school week had gone in a blink of an eye. He didn’t want to dwell on the feelings so he just went back to sleep after scrolling through twitter for 20 minutes. 

“Rise and shine!” said a voice coming through the door of the large dorm room. George groaned as he didn’t want to get up, at this, Dream opened the blinds and curtains, letting all the light in forcing George to either bury his face uncomfortably into his pillow or to wake up. He chose the latter in fear of being woken up any other way,  
“Mm hello,” he said groggily, brushing a hand through his hair,  
“I thought we could do something fun today rather than being hurled in here all the time,” Dream said enthusiastically. George raised his eyebrows,  
“Depends on what you think is fun,” he said sceptically and Dream looked up from where he was hanging up his football kit,  
“Cycling!” he declared, “Come on it will be great,” he added once he saw the surprise on George’s face,  
“Is anyone else going?” he said still approaching the subject with caution,  
“Nope, just us two,” he replied and began humming the song “Just the two of us”. He looked up at George after he didn’t say anything for a minute, “I mean more people can come of you want, I don’t mind,” he added very quickly because he didn’t want George to feel uncomfortable,  
“Just us is fine,” George said with a smile,  
“Okay good because I didn’t want to invite other people anyway,” Dream blurted with an exasperated laugh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again its still me but self promo mode,  
> thanks so much for the 500+ hits thats mental, i honestly thought no one would read this, let me know if your enjoying it, leave some comments ill hopefully reply to them :]  
> kudos and bookmarks are hugely appreciated !! <3


	5. Picnic date :]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream and George hang out in the woods for a picnic.   
> Tommy/Wilbur and George content too woop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey   
> im sorry if this chapter is clumpy or under-edited, im rlly tired and havent gone near my google doc a lot this week but hopefully i can get back on track :]  
> anyways enjoy the chapter <3

The sun was shining very brightly outside as the two boys walked to the shed to go and get a couple of spare bikes that Dream had stashed away the night before. George had to squint at the best of times because he wasn’t used to the sun yet having just rolled out of bed. It was also very hot outside so he had worn ripped jeans and a very oversized arctic monkeys T-Shirt, Dream was wearing a pair of beige chino-shorts and striped button up, they both wore variations of vans.  
The bikes were easy to get and because students were allowed to go into town on weekends it was even easier to get off campus. Even though pupils weren’t really supposed to go beyond the main town center, there wasn't any severe punishment for going into the countryside so some did anyway. Most didn’t but only because there is not usually any need but cycling around a town center seemed very unappealing to both parties so they decided to go up into the woodlands on the outskirts of the town.   
The woods were relatively easy to get to as the school itself was not very central and already near the ever shrinking countryside, they just had to go in the opposite direction from town to get to the nature area which was kind of connected to the campus but not really. The school itself was large but the grounds were even bigger, when you first come in, there are large iron gates and a long, gravel driveway surrounded by hedges which leads you to a car park and Residence Building D which is mainly used by Seniors and a few Juniors, if you keep going there are two more buildings for dorms and beside there is a small lake with a trail going into a tree filled area with a few small ponds full of fish.   
Situated on the edge of this was a large football/soccer field and up behind it was a hockey/soccer astro turf and an inside sportshall/gym with a clubhouse. If you went away from this and past the dorms you would get to the main courtyard which takes you to Residence Building B and the main foyer for the school. Just beyond that is a very large, Hogwarts-esque building with all of the actual classrooms inside. Inside there were broad corridors lined with lockers and displays, overall the school had a good demena about itself. 

After cycling in the warm September air for around thirty minutes, the two boys reached an opening into the woodland area. The trees stood tall and green, they swayed a little in the breeze making rustling rounds overhead as George and Dream cycled into it. George had come up with the idea of bringing a picnic so he had a backpack on with sandwiches, drinks, some brownies and some jaffa cakes inside. George had managed to smuggle the Jaffa cakes across the border when he got here along with some other British snacks he claimed he couldn’t survive without,  
“You’d better like them,” he had said to his friend when he was packing the bag, “You can’t get them here and they are a delicacy,”

Dream had also brought a few snacks and a blanket for them to sit on when they reached the spot Dream was thinking of. Dream had been coming to this spot since about halfway into freshman year because sometimes he needed to get away from the grades, the sport, the expectation. He got stressed as did everyone and he needed a place just to sit and watch the little flecks of light from cars dance around miles and miles away in front of him. He had never taken anyone to his spot before because he didn’t want anyone knowing that he had such emotions but also because he didn’t think anyone was worthy of the tranquility this place held for Dream. This was his special place and if anyone ruined that for him, he would be so distraught. He had even bothered to decorate once with little LED lights strung from the tree and he had a little bucket for throwing rocks down the edge of the hill. Overhead there was a rolled up tent like fabric so he could even come here in the rain and not get too wet, though in summer this wasn’t so much of a problem. He had made the spot a second home and was getting increasingly more nervous to take George here in case he didn’t like it.  
After a break in conversation, George looked over at Dream as they were cycling, his blonde hair was flying past him and the sun was in his face which enhanced the blue in his eyes and the freckles that dotted his nose and cheeks. He looked at him for a few moments longer before Dream realised and looked at him, George quickly looked away and fixated his eyes on the trees ahead of him. He could feel his cheeks beginning to go red,  
“Are we there yet?” he said just to avoid being asked any other questions,  
“Almost, like 5 more minutes I think?” his friend replied with a smirk.  
As promised, about 4 minutes later, they were at the top of a hill that overlooked the tiny town below. George felt his jaw drop at the sight,  
“D’you like it?” Dream said nervously and George nodded in reply still awe-struck. It was a beautiful place and you could see for miles. There was a small bench at the edge of the opening but otherwise it was a big, open space with a small edge, they had set down the blankets and picnic here and began to think about eating as it was 12:30.   
After a while, George snapped a photo of Dream while he wasn’t looking and Dream pretended to be very offended, he tried to wrestle George to get his phone to delete it but just ended up in a mess on the ground with no success. George giggled to himself at triamp and lay his head on Dream’s thighs as he couldn’t be bothered to get back up, Dream looked slightly flustered and George teased him,  
“Hm, someone seems nervous,” he said smirking up at his friend. George was just as nervous but the newfound confidence was enough to hide it. Dream stuttered for a second,  
“Say’s you, you blush at anything I say,” Dream retorted as he poked George’s cheek and proving his point: George blushed, “See,” he grinned,  
“Oh no, you’d like that wouldn’t you?” he replied slyly. Mindless flirting. Mindless flirting that meant nothing to them yet their hearts could leap out of their chests at any given moment. George would be lying if he said he disliked it but would also be lying if he said he understood it, even though George had only known him for a week, Dream was single-handedly the best friend he had ever had and he loved their dynamic, but at times he wondered whether other friends did what they did and whether it was normal. The flirting, the amount they had shared with each other already, how they could give each other a look from across the room and know exactly what the other meant or how they could finish each other’s sentences perfectly almost by telepathy. George put this down to them being roommates and spending excessive amounts of time with the blonde boy but he couldn’t help his mind wonder for other reasons why this could be the case.  
George was falling in and out of sleep in the blonde’s lap and Dream was making a tiny braid in his hair while some bedroom-pop artist was playing in the background. The place was very peaceful and George could easily sit here all day with Dream and never get bored of it. There were a few wild flowers nearby with bees and butterflies flying around the place adding to the tranquility of the nature aesthetic.

“George,” Dream said after a while as he nudged the boy who was on his lap, “We’ve got to go soon, we’ve been here for almost 5 hours,” he smiled at the brunette who was quinting at him,  
“Huh,” he said quietly, “It hasn’t been that long,” George questioned,  
“It has and we need to be back by 5 otherwise the matrons will get angry,” the blonde said lowering his face down to the other boy’s,  
“Fuck them I want to stay here,” George whined and with that Dream pushed him off and then scooped him up over his shoulders so he was forced to get up, “Hey no put me down!” George exclaimed as his feet flew out behind him. Dream was laughing at him hysterically as he tried to squirm and escape his grasp.  
Eventually Dream put him down and when he did, he ruffled George’s hair and he felt the pink rise in his cheeks,  
“You know, you look cute when you blush,” said Dream as he looked into George’s eyes to let him know he is dead serious,  
“You don’t mean that,” George laughed nervously. Why was he nervous? It was just him and his best friend joking around with playful, flirty banter. What was it to him to care?  
“If you say so,” Dream muttered breaking the eye contact and placing George’s small hand in his larger one after they cleared up all of the picnic stuff and the blanket,  
“Do we actually have to leave?” George said quietly,  
“Yeah,” Dream paused, “I’m sorry,”  
“Don’t be, I had fun today,” George smiled as the two boys got their bikes and cycled down the hill back to the campus. They cycled and talked as they did on the way here but there was a different mood in the air and George couldn’t quite figure it out. It was almost like it was softer but how could that be? He ignored it as per usual.

The communal area was a nice place to be and it only was supposed to be used by people on that half of the floor and friends of those people. Luckily for George, there were only 5 rooms on his half, all of which were his friends or people he knew from around school so he didn’t have to worry about random people being here that he would have to interact with which was pleasant. Had that not been the case, he probably wouldn’t ever come here.  
The place itself was very nice, they had a TV mounted on the wall at one end of the room and a sofa in front of it with some beanbags, blankets and a coffee table that people tended to use as a footrest. Behind the sofa there was a large round table that sometimes friends would come to congregate for a light dinner as opposed to a full meal down in the hall and just next to that was a small counter with a sink, kettle, toaster, microwave and a few cupboards and drawers for cutlery and plates. Students each had a mini fridge in their rooms along with a cupboard so food was usually stored in there but they still had bread, milk, coffee, tea, cereal and crackers in the communal area to share between themselves.   
The area also had a lot of personality about it because everyone had made it their own somehow, because everyone knew each other, people felt comfortable putting up group photos, banners, flags, bunting and posters up and around the place to make it look more customised compared to the bland grey walls of before.  
“How was your date,” Sapnap swooned at Dream and George as they walked out of the stairwell on their floor into the area,  
“It wasn’t a date, Sapnap,” George laughed at him, “Just two bros chilling in the forest having a picnic, that’s all,” he said sarcastically,  
“Oh so you didn’t tell him then?” The boy questioned, less jokingly as he turned to face Dream,  
“Tell me what?” George asked, distracted while boiling a kettle for some tea,  
“Nothing,” they both said quickly,  
“Doesn’t sound like nothing,” the brunette shrugged as he sat on the countertop,  
“Don’t worry about it,” Sapnap said brushing his jet-black hair out of his eyes and adjusting his bandana,  
“Hm okay,” George says taking the tea bags out of the tin,  
“Go on then, how was your date with Karl,” Dream teased still kind of flushed,  
“Ooh gotem there Dream,” Sapnap rolled his eyes and the three laughed. A sense of slight dream washed over Dream’s face because he knew that George wouldn’t let that slide and he would be questioning him about it later. In the meantime they play uno and eat ramen because none of them could be particularly bothered to go down back to the main building.

About an hour later Wilbur messaged George asking him to come to his room for a while because Tommy wont leave him alone so George excuses himself to go meet his friend.  
He had met Tommy before when he first met Wilbur with Dream but never really got to know him, mainly because he had no reason to, but he seemed nice enough not to dislike at first sight so he was deemed okay in George’s eyes for now.  
George walked all the way down the hall and across the bridge to the second half of the floor, he reached the door to the cave that was Wilbur’s room and knocked. A tall, blonde boy answered the door,  
“Hello!” he practically shouted in a very thick accent, “Oi Will, this is George right?” he yelled back into the room and his brother emerged,  
“Yes, now stop being rude and get out of the way to let him in,” Wilbur said and with that Tommy got out of the way and skulked back to the bed, “Hello,” his friend said a lot softer than his brother,  
“Hi,” George replied with a laugh.  
When he walked in, the room was tidier than before and there were no uniform curtains anymore so the remaining light from the setting sun was pouring into the room along with the previous, cosy glow of the salt lamps. George guessed Tommy had helped him clean up. The boy was draped over the edge of Wilbur’s bed looking at something on his phone while the other two talked,  
“He’s only here because his roommate found a friend who is better than him,” Wilbur said as he prodded Tommy,  
“I’m the better one!” he protested, “Tubbo needed help with some geography project so went to the smart kid in class but not me and now they are bezzie mates,” he whined, “It’s not fair,” Tommy folded his arms after he sat up sulkily,  
“I’m sure he hasn’t replaced you yet, don’t worry, big man,” Wilbur said while putting on a record, “What’s his name anyway?”  
“Who’s? Tubbo’s?”  
“No, dumbass. His new friend’s name,”  
“Oh, Ranboo. He is American so he talks funny,” he said slowly, “I’m glad you made friends with George, he talked normally like us.” he looked at George approvingly. It was refreshing to be talking with fellow british people instead of Americans all of the time and the two other boys thought so too. It gave them all a homely sense of togetherness in the new foreign place.

After a while, George learned that Tommy really, really hates Americans, hence part of the disliking of his oldest brother and Ranboo. Techno wasn’t American but he has an accent because he spent so much time growing up here.  
He used to go there every summer to go to various farms when he was little but as he grew older he ended up going for most holidays and for sport.   
He and Wilbur stayed very close throughout all of this because after all, they were twins but him and Tommy barely knew each other at all and had no real reason to therefore not really liking one another very much.   
Wilbur gets on very well with both of them but unsurprisingly, he gets on a bit better with Tommy as they grew up in the same household. The two brothers know each other by the back of their hands and George finds it mesmerizing. When he was back home, he and his sister always used to fight up until about a year and a half ago when they first realised George was going to be living away for his high school years but according to Tommy and Wilbur, they had always gotten on very well, only a few major arguments over the years but only over silly things and they always made up before the next morning. It baffled George’s brain.  
The three end up talking about nothing for two hours then Tommy’s phone rings from Tubbo telling him that the matron is looking for him so he needs to get back. He usually gets let off of the hook because he is only ever with Wilbur when not in his own room and they are related so it’s not like he is up to any major trouble. Plus he gets the added pity of being “homesick” but all of that is coming out of Tommy’s ass and everyone knows it.   
Tommy leaves and George thinks about leaving too because matrons in Residence Building B come round pretty early too because there are still some freshmen on the second floor,  
“How you feeling about the girls coming next week?” Wilbur asks while paying attention to something else too,  
“Eh, I don’t really care being honest, not like I’m going to Winter Formal anyway, so,” George says in a final tone, “How about yourself?”  
“I know one girl who goes there, she has been a friend of mine for a while but we don’t talk too often,” Wilbur says, “Her name is Minx by the way,” he shrugs, “She knows one of Techno’s friends too,”  
“Oh nice,” George says, “Small world,huh,” he laughs a little.  
They talk for a while before George says he should probably get back too,  
“I have something to tell you but it can wait until tomorrow,” Wilbur smiles when they get to the door,  
“Tell me now?” George replied, kind of concerned.  
“It’s not bad don’t worry,” and with that Wilbur shut the door and his friend stood there, “See you tomorrow,” he said through the door,  
“Bye..?” George muttered as he walked back down to his room.

When George walked past the communal area there were only 2 people there, one in a black and red hoodie and another in a bright blue shirt. The boys smiled at George so he smiled back but walked away before they had time to talk to him.  
He assumed Dream and Sapnap had gone back to his room because it was bigger than Sapnap and Karl’s.  
When he got there he could hear muffled conversation but didn’t really care about what they were talking about so he just unlocked the door and came in. The two boys immediately turned their heads around and they looked like deer caught in headlights. George thought this was very funny,  
“What are you two doing in here? Shagging or something?” George laughed to himself,  
“Shagging?” Sapnap asked confused,  
“Oh, shag means to have sex,” He explained while trying not to laugh,  
“Weird British slang,” Sapnap muttered under his breath, Dream laughed at that.  
They were both sat at each end of Dream’s bed talking before George had come in but now Sapnap was stood up ready to leave after only 2 minutes of George being there,  
“Okay well, better shoot,” he said, “You know what Karl’s like,” he winked at the boys and left the room. George locked the door behind him and headed to the bathroom,  
“Does Sapnap have a problem with me?” George quietly asked, his voice barely audible suddenly very anxious. He stared into the mirror, he didn’t really want that to ruin his day,  
“What? No,” came a voice from the bathroom door. Dream had gotten up and followed George apparently, “Why’d you think that, Georgie?” he was using his softer ‘don’t feel anxious, everything is okay, talk to me’ voice. He walked over to stand next to George in the mirror,  
“I dunno, nevermind,” George looked down at the floor and he felt an arm wrap around his shoulder, “It’s nothing don’t worry,”  
“Doesn’t sound like nothing,” Dream said again. George smirked,  
“Quoting me are you?” he said and looked up at Dream through the mirror, “Oh yeah I meant to ask you about that actually, what were you supposed to tell me earlier?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!  
> kudos and comments r appreciated thank u <3


	6. a serious talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George asked Dream some stuff then Wilbur drops the "I think Dream likes you" bomb.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> a short one today because im tired but i hope you are all well and doing as well as you can be doing.  
> I hope u enjoy the chapter <3

George could feel Dream tense a little but then he eased again,   
“Oh uh, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to like that's completely okay i don't mind at all,” George stumbled over his words as he tried to get it all out as quick as possible, the last thing he wanted was to make Dream uncomfortable. The blonde laughed at him quietly at his friend’s attempt at being emotional,  
“It’s okay and…” Dream trailed, the traces of a smile only just lingering on his face, “It’s not like I don’t want to tell you, I just..” he stared into empty space, “I don’t know what you would think of me that’s all. Maybe I’ll tell you at some point, I guess,” he looked down at George and his arm was still wrapped around him. He looked up and they made eye-contact, something that they very rarely did,  
“Honestly, there isn’t much you could do for me to dislike you,” the smaller boy said with a shaky voice. He wasn’t good at expressing his emotions at all and he had never really formed any meaningful friendships before so it wasn’t like he had any practice either.   
He had always been this way, even with his family. He knows if he loves someone, platonically, romantically or in a family way though he just doesn’t know how to put that into any physical form to express it.   
Where the problem lies is that human beings as a species, like being told that they are loved and George can’t offer that to anyone so he tends not to make friends so he can’t accidentally hurt anyone by seemingly not loving them. It was a hard thing to accept but George knew it was for the best to stay away safely which is why he never said anything when it came to intimacy, nevertheless he accepted the affection Dream gave him and tried his very best to return it because Dream was different, he couldn’t stay away from him but at the same time he really didn’t want to hurt him. With Dream, George tried harder than with anyone else to make sure he felt loved,  
“Do you want to watch movies for a bit?” the shorter boy asked after a while of the two standing in front of the bathroom mirror,  
“Yeah,” Dream breathed, he seemed relieved to have a subject change as this thing was obviously stressing Dream out, “I’ll go get my laptop,” he said, squeezing George’s shoulder once before walking out leaving George to stand on his own for a brief moment more before following his friend out of the room.

It was 1:47am and George was again sat, completely leant against Dream on his bed half cuddling while watching a film on Dream’s laptop with him, this had only happened once but George wasn’t complaining.   
Halfway through their second film, George was falling in and out of sleep before Dream put his hand through his hair to wake him up a little,  
“George?” he said very quietly,  
“Yeah?” he whispered back  
“You know when we were talking about if we would ever date a guy last week?” his voice was shaky,  
“Yeah, I remember,” George said softly, having a small hint of where this was going. Dream’s hand was still brushing through his brown hair,  
“Well I think I would,” he breathed. George stayed quiet for a minute trying to process how he had figured that out in such a small time frame,   
“Date a guy?” George asked,  
“Yeah, but I like girls too,” he almost sounded defensive,  
“I’m not sure I’m the best person to come to because you know of my exciting love life,” George laughed softly and so did Dream, “but if you want to talk about it more now that’s okay, just know I probably won't have the best thing to say and I know nothing about labels at all,”  
“It’s okay, I understand labels and it’s just been on my mind a lot,” he said, “I just felt like you should know,” his voice was back to being shaky, “Please don’t hate me,” he said in a small voice. This was obviously important to Dream in George’s eyes because he wasn’t being his usual loud, confident self but instead small and confined,  
“I don’t hate you,” George said, “I meant what I said earlier and I’m glad you told me,” he had a small, soft smile on his face which was returned by Dream. He pulled his friend into a hug and then they made themselves comfy like that with an arm around George’s waist like earlier at the picnic and started watching the first film of the night.

George woke up because there was light flooding into the room and a beam was going straight into his eyes. He had forgotten to close the curtains the night before. George buried his face further into the little ball he was in before deciding he would probably have to just get up anyway.  
He rolled to his side to get out of bed only to find a wall, he looked up. There were photos on the wall but not any that he recognised immediately. He looked around and saw the picture of Dream with his mum and sisters, he whipped his head round to the other side and saw his own bed completely made and tidy as he had left it on the other side of the room. He had slept with Dream in the same bed. Dream wasn’t here though. George’s eyes widened. He got out of his friend’s bed and walked around the room. There was no sign of Dream so George decided to text him.  
He didn’t get a reply and Dream usually replies pretty quick so he threw on some semi-presentable clothes and went out looking.  
He started behind the residence building and up towards the small tree area with the ponds. It didn’t take George long to get there and he was glad he went this way first because that was where Dream was. Sat at the edge of a pond looking at some fish darting around. It reminded George of when he was here in the rain.  
He didn’t know what to say so he just stood there. Dream didn’t notice,  
“What did we say about leaving notes,” George said very quietly, Dream whipped his head around to face George,   
“Oh shit,” he said startled, “Hey” he said with a hint of guilt in his voice,  
“Everything okay?” George said, still quiet. He wasn't mad at Dream but he was extremely worried as to where he was. It wasn’t like him to do something like this.  
Dream brushed his face with his hand which appeared to be a little blotchy as if he had been crying. He stayed quiet as if he were weighing up his options, “It doesn’t take someone that long to tell me that everything is good,” George said, “Talk to me,”   
There was a pause before Dream offered for George to sit next to him. His friend took him up on the offer and sat down with him at the edge of the pond,  
“I can’t tell you,” he replies slowly, “Everything okay with you?”.  
George doesn’t respond, he doesn’t really know what to say because he wants to help but he doesn’t know how to,  
“If you could tell me, would you?” he asks nervously. Dream waits a beat,  
“Yes,” he nods. George half nods in return then they go back to comfortable silence for a few minutes while they watch the Koi swim around nearer the bottom of the pond.  
George gets up after a while,  
“Where are you going?” Dream asks  
“Back to our room, why?”  
“Oh okay,” he says kind of disappointedly, “see you later,”  
There was a new air of slight awkwardness and George didn’t like it. Dream felt distant and it stirred in George’s stomach because he had thought they were best friends and he would tell him if something was up. He appeared to be wrong and it was safe to say George was a little upset about it.

When he got back he did the usual, he showered then went to breakfast. He didn’t want to go alone so before George got in the shower, he texted Wilbur to ask if he wanted to grab a bite together. He didn’t expect him to reply as it was still quite early for most people but sure enough, Wil pulled through and said he would be free in about 20 mins once he was ready. He texted Dream to tell him where he was in case he came back to an empty room.

“Morning,” a voice came from across the courtyard directed towards George. He was smiling,  
“Hello Wilbur,” George grinned back  
The two boys walked into the pretty much empty hall talking about nothing,  
“What have you been up to since we last spoke,” George asked, “s’been a while,” he chuckled,  
“I know right, long time no see,” Wilbur laughed back, “And I have been guitar-ing if you were interested,” he said with a trace of pride in his expression. George thought playing any instrument was cool, he himself used to play drums but he stopped when he moved because moving a whole drum kit across the atlantic seemed a bit excessive. He could also play piano reasonably well but so could everyone here really,  
“Acoustic or electric?” he replied  
“Both but mostly electric,” Wil said and George nodded.  
They talked more about music which they often managed to change the subject to a lot before George remembered,  
“Hey what did you want to tell me last night?” he asked nervously. His friends expression went a little unreadable but George didn’t think it was anything to be too concerned about,  
“I think Dream likes you,” he said. Georges eyes widened like saucers,  
“What?” he said perplexed, “Why’d you think that?”. Wilbur shrugs,  
“I’m a watcher,” he begins, “I have known Dream for a long time and I have seen you around the corridors last year. Dunno if you noticed but Dream plays sports, fights his mates and is a general ‘jock’ as these people put it,” Wilbur explains,  
“Yes..?” George replies,  
“Well has it not crossed your mind why he doesn’t do that with you?” he says “You two are closer than Ant and Dec so it can't be because he doesn’t trust you or anything,” George starts to think about it,  
“I’m not like his other friends and I’m a lot smaller than him,” he says. Dream couldn't possibly like him,  
“It’s not just that, he puts down whatever he is doing to give you his undivided attention. You guys flirt out of nowhere, you pretty much do everything together and have over a million inside jokes,” Wilbur said. It didn’t make any sense in George’s head at all, “I’d be stupid to think something wasn’t up with it,”  
“He can’t like me, surely?” George says quietly. Wilbur seems to only just notice the inner turmoil he has caused inside George’s head,  
“I mean you’re closer to him than I am. I’m just saying what it looks like as an outsider,” he explains.  
George just nods but his mind is somewhere else. He thinks about everything that has happened in the past week. They had inside jokes but they were usually just from things that happened in the dorm like the ‘Grog’ nickname fiasco.  
They did flirt but he thought it was just banter?  
Did Dream really put down what he was doing to focus on George?  
He had enough with his thoughts so he pushed them straight out of his brain but Wilbur didn’t pick up on the memo,  
“So, do you like him?” he asked. George looked more surprised than before now. He just sat there for a minute,  
“I don't think so?” he said. He was lying if he said it was a definite no, “I’m straight anyway,” his voice was a little shaky. He didn’t really know what to make of the situation because he didn’t like Dream. Not like what anyway. George tried not to think of it and changed the subject.  
After that Wilbur and George went back to talking about nothing but George was incredibly distracted by his thoughts about his roommate. He didn’t like him but he did like it when they hugged though. Which wasn’t something he liked normally from anyone but Dream was his best friend. He liked falling asleep on Dream but that was because they were roommates. They didn’t ‘play fight’ because George was small and would end up being crushed by Dream.  
Everything in his mind was just “Dream, Dream, Dream,” for the rest of the meal. By the time they were done George’s head was spinning. He decided the best thing was to do was ignore all of the thoughts and go on about his life.

When he got back to the dorm he saw Dream and Sapnap in the communal area eating cereal at the plastic kitchen table. George went to go make a tea and join them,  
“Hello,” he said as he sat down,  
“Hello Gogmeister,” Sapnap said,  
“Don't call me that,” he cringed while Sapnap and Dream laughed. George slumped down and glanced at Dream making sure not to spill his tea anywhere,  
“Is it actually good?” Dream asked,  
“Is what good?” George said in return trying to sound normal even with the intrusive thoughts,  
“Tea,” Dream said, “You drink it all the time so does it taste like magic or something?” George laughed at him but Sapnap had joined the enquiry,  
“I dunno,” he said, “You can try some but in England you drink it as soon as you’re out of the womb,” he passes over the mug, “Really helping the stereotype, I know”.  
Dream curled his hands round the cup and took a sip, it was still quite hot but he didn’t mind. He took a longer gulp this time and offered the mug to Sapnap who pulled a face and declined,  
“I don’t want his British witchcraft in my veins,” he said with a scrunched up face,  
“Suit yourself, it's not too bad actually,” Dream smiled at George and his stomach did a little flip. He smiled back.  
It was just crappy Yorkshire Tea but George still had a stash of about 5 boxes hidden in the cupboard back in his room. He could leave them in the communal area since no one else drank the tea but he liked to know they were safe,  
“I have more in the cupboard next to the sink if you want some,” George told him, “You can take some I don’t mind,”  
“You’d have to teach me how to make it,” Dream smiled,   
“It’s literally just water, a teabag and milk..” George replied with a laugh,  
“Shh I know,” He said with a smirk, “I just want to spend more time with you, Georgie,” George went red at the joke,  
“Okay get a room, simps,” Sapnap said with half a mouthful of cereal,  
“Oh and you’re one to talk,” Dream retorted, “Have you seen yourself with Karl,” he chuckles,  
“At least I told him I liked him unlike you two who just flirt all day,” he snaps,  
“Oh come on now,” Dream says properly laughing at how suddenly agitated Sapnap was getting. George smirked as he suppressed a laugh,  
“Oh whatever,” Sapnap said in defeat and laughed with them.

George was doing homework on his laptop while Dream was messing on some game on George’s PC halfway through the afternoon. Dream didn’t know how the game worked but he enjoyed it so he ran around aimlessly for a few hours.  
George started humming some song from a band that Wilbur showed him, something about crying, George couldn’t really remember,  
“Was there any physics homework?” George asked after a while  
“Not that I know of,” Dream looked up, “Girl’s school is coming for most of this week though,” he added dryly,  
“What?” George asked,  
“Yeah they are coming for the core subjects, music and food tech,” Dream said going back to the game, “More of an introduction thing again but with more socialisation,”  
“Oh,” he replied. Don’t know if anybody had noticed, but George wasn’t very big on ‘people’. Dream picked up on this,  
“Don’t worry though, I know a few people and so does Wilbur,” he says softly, “We can introduce you to them if you’d like. They are nice too” he adds. George gives him a weak smile. He appreciates Dream but he feels like such a baby not being able to interact on his own, he feels a bit like a burden. Dream looks at him and basically reads his mind, “I know what you’re thinking, stop it,”  
“Stop what?” he asks  
“You know what,” he says, “You’re not pissing anyone off by doing this and if no one introduced anyone to anyone, life would be pretty lonely and that goes for everyone, so,” Dreams words come out in a rush and turns back to the monitor,  
“If you say so,” George says slowly,  
“I do say so,” Dream says almost immediately. George gets up and walks over to see how Dream is doing in the game,  
“You’ve been playing for almost two hours and have only accumulated a stone sword,” he sniggers,  
“You didn’t show me how to play!” Dream dramatically throws his hands up,  
“Okay, budge up, I’ll teach you then,” George said and Dream's face went a little pink.  
The office chair was obviously not made for more than one person so George was half sat on Dream’s lap and both were hyper aware of this but none of them said anything about it, “The game is called ‘Minecraft’ shouldn’t that give you some indication as to what you have to do?” he said amused,  
“You’d think so wouldn’t you?” Dream mutters.

The two spent the next hour or so playing Minecraft and George taught Dream all the crafting recipes, little tips and even cheats he knew about the game.  
They both enjoyed the time very much but the whole time George was only really focused on how close Dream was to him. He could smell his jumper and could’ve probably counted his freckles if he had dared looked up at him. It was an odd sensation burning in George’s stomach because Wilbur had poked the embers of his thoughts about actually liking Dream and now they were set alight and burning in an uncontrollable inferno. At least he realised though,  
“Are you going for dinner tonight?” Dream asks once they are both pretty much bored of the game,  
“Probably not,” George replies, “Are you?” he could feel his friends eyes on him but still didn’t want to look up so he kept himself focused on the PC,  
“Yeah, you should come though,” he says softly and George shrugs, “You don’t usually come to dinner,” George shrugs again,  
“I dunno, I don’t really like the idea of lots of people at once,” George said as an arm snaked around his waist. George froze,  
“I can bring you some back if you’d like?” Dream offered. George smiled at the gesture but didn’t want to be a pain,  
“It’s fine, I’ll have toast or something,” he says,  
“For dinner? I don’t think so,” Dream stated, “You have to eat more than that, If you want we can go in an hour or so when there are not too many people around or just pick some up and eat it here?” his friend sounded concerned and that was not what George was going for at all so he just agreed to going now so he wouldn’t ruin Dream’s plans, “You sure?” Dream asked with his chin on George’’s shoulder. He froze again as Dream’s voice was right in his ear,  
“Yep,” he uttered quickly before he could say anything else.

Dinner went fine. George talked with Quackity for the most part about random things. Quackity was very energetic and it sometimes rubbed onto George making him laugh hysterically at times.  
The two had a lot in common so naturally got on very well and George completely let the weird stares before out of his mind and decided that it was just because George was new, Quackity was actually a pretty nice guy.  
From the other side of the table though, Dream glanced over at the two of them a lot. More than to just be excused as a ‘loud noise’ glance. It was like Dream was checking to see if his roommate was still there and at times George could have squirmed under the stare. Quackity picked up on this too,  
“Dude what's his deal?” he whispered to George, “He looks like I’m going to murder you or something,” he and George giggled,  
“I don’t know, I didn’t really want to come to dinner so I guess he is seeing if i haven’t made a run for it yet,” he laughed,  
“We should though,” Quackity said in a low voice,  
“Should what?” George said with a grin,  
“Do a runner,” he said and he stood up with his tray and walked over to put it away, he beckoned George to do the same. George stood up and once Quackity was out of earshot he told Dream that he would be back a little late then ran off with his friend as they left the dining hall and headed towards the field.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo self promo mode,  
> Comments and Kudos are appreciated loads and this just reached over 1000 hits which is kinda crazy because i thought it would only get about 100 so thank you everyone!!


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